Speaking to CRNI, Ms. Farghadani expressed her utmost appreciation of Cartoonists Rights Network International and all organizations, cartoonists and activists who have supported her throughout her incarceration and given a voice to her and her cause.

She also pointed out that although she’s happy to be free, she is also concerned about all of the unknown prisoners who have no supporters.

Ms. Farghadani was first arrested in August, 2014, after posting a cartoon on Facebook in protest of the Iranian Parliament’s plans to restrict women’s reproductive rights. Upon her release three months later, Ms. Farghadani posted a YouTube video documenting her brutal treatment in jail.

Following the YouTube video, Ms. Farghadani was re-arrested in January, 2015 — and five months later handed a 12 year, nine month prison sentence for counter-revolutionary activity, undermining national security, insulting the Supreme Leader, the Iranian president, Members of Parliament and jail officials, and for spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Last month a successful appeal by lawyer Mohammad Moghimi saw Ms. Farghadani’s prison sentence reduced to 18 months. Ms. Farghadani was acquitted of counter-revolutionary activity and undermining national security, and her sentence for insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was suspended for three years. Her sentence for insulting the president and other individuals was converted into a monetary fine.

Atena told CRNI that she wants to stay in Iran and continue working as an artist.

Her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, also told CRNI that he’s very happy for the release of his client and as a human rights lawyer, he will continue defending activists and individuals whose human rights has been violated.

Message from Cartoonists Rights founder, Dr. Robert “Bro” Russell:

Dr. Robert Russell

Everybody at Cartoonist Rights Network International is elated at the news that Atena has been at last freed. From the beginning her incarceration and the insults and indignities she has been subjected to have been illegal and unwarranted. Personally, I suspect she will rise above the trauma and continue to present her opinions as freely and independently as ever.

We celebrate her courage in the face of adversity.

As well we congratulate and thank all other organizations, especially Amnesty International, for having done such a wonderful job of bringing pressure onto the appropriate Iranian authorities to revisit and nullify her unfair convictions.

We also thank those Iranian authorities whose good judgment and commitment to justice led to her eventual release.

Iranian cartoonist Hadi Heidari has been released from Tehran’s Erin Prison. Mr. Heidari had been arrested by government agents on November 16, 2015, at the offices at the reformist newspaper, Shahrvand. The cartoonist was taken into custody after a judge ordered Hadeiri to serve the balance of a 2013 suspended sentence stemming from a cartoon deemed anti-state. Heidari’s November arrest came shortly after he posted a cartoon in response to the Paris terrorist attacks which was shared around the world.

Artist/Activist Atena Farghadani has had her 12-year, nine-month prison sentence reduced, CRNI Deputy-Director Nik Kowsar has learned. Appeal Court No. 54 of the Province of Tehran has reduced the artist’s sentence to 18 months — which, by her lawyer’s calculation, means Atena Farghadani should be out of prison sometime in May.

Nik writes: Ms. Farghadani “has been acquitted from charges of undermining national security, and her three year imprisonment for insulting the Supreme Leader has been suspended for four years.

“The 9 month sentence of insulting the President, Members of Parliament and the guards of ward 2-A of Evin prison has changed to a monetary fine (not yet determined). The 18 months prison for ‘propaganda against the regime’ has been confirmed by the appelate court.

“I have not been able to talk to Atena’s father yet, but I thanked her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, on CRNI’s behalf for his great work and devotion.”

Iranian authorities have confirmed to UN investigators that imprisoned artist/activist Atena Farghadani was forcibly subjected to “virginity and pregnancy tests.” The admissions are reported in the just-published UN Human Rights Council report on Iran.

The UN’s Special Rapporteurs on Torture and Violence Against Women classify enforced virginity testing of prisoners a “violation of the right to dignity, the right not to be subjected to ill-treatment and constitute a particularly gross form of discrimination and of custodial violence.”

“On 10 January 2015, Atena Farghdani, a peaceful activist and artist, was arrested and beaten in front of her parents and later in front of a court judge. In June 2015, she received a sentence of 12 years and six months of imprisonment. While in prison, she was reportedly subject to torture, sexual harassment and degrading detention conditions. Furthermore, she was reportedly forced to take virginity and pregnancy tests, and held in prolonged solitary confinement for 20 days.

“In their comments on this report, the [Iranian] authorities stated that prison authorities carried out tests to respond to allegations of sexual assault against her on some websites.“

Atena Farghadani contradicts the official Iranian account that the enforced procedures were in response to Internet reports of sexual assault. In a letter smuggled from her cell, Ms. Farghadani says she was subjected to the enforced virginity testing after being charged with “improper sexual contact” for shaking hands with her lawyer during a monitored prison visit in June, 2015.

The Modern Times Group, a Swedish media conglomerate that has TV channels throughout Scandinavia and the Balkan states, has yanked an animated cartoon from it’s Bulgarian station‘s website and fired the cartoon’s creator, Chavdar Nikolov. The cartoon lampooned Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov‘s support for a gang of vigilantes illegally apprehending refugees slipping into that country. The cartoon contrasted Khan Asparukh, the founder of Bulgaria, leading Bulghar warriors with Prime Minister Borisov leading a seedy bunch of vigilantes. In addition to that animation, 90 others that Chavdar Nikolov had produced for the station were removed from its website.

Reporting the censorship, Reporters Without Borders declared: “A media outlet’s management has a duty to maintain the editorial independence of the journalists who work for it . . . The media must participate in the democratic debate, which includes this kind of cartoon. Media freedom is not a trite formula. It is incredible that media outlets must be reminded of their duty to respect it. All of Nikolov’s cartoons must be restored to the website.”

“This is an unprecedented onslaught against free expression in Malaysia, and an attempt to muzzle the entire population”— Jahabar Sadiq, former editor of the Malaysian Insider

Malaysia’s embattled cartoonist Zunar

Cartoonist Zunar has lost his bid to convince Malaysia’s High Court to quash that country’s Sedition Act. Zunar told the BenarNews: “We challenged the law because in our view it goes against the Federal Constitution, which in Article 10 states that every citizen has the right to freely give their views.” A date will now be set for Zunar’s prosecution under the Sedition Act. Zunar was charged over a series of tweets made following a controversial court case in 2015. If found guilty, he faces a possible 43-year prison sentence.

Malaysia’s Sedition Act was enacted during the country’s colonial period by a British ruling class intent on discouraging independence-minded Malaysians. Malaysia’s current ruler, Prime Minister Najib Razak, promised in 2012 to repeal the Sedition Act, but has since come to rely on it to stifle dissent against his scandal-plagued government.

“In 2015 alone, at least 91 individuals were arrested, charged or investigated for sedition – almost five times as many as during the law’s first 50 years of existence” — Amnesty International

Regarding Zunar’s impending trial, a member of his legal team said, “We are likely to appeal further to the court of appeal, and we will seek further postponement of Zunar’s hearing at the Sessions Court.”

Zunar, in accepting the International Press Freedom Award, told the awards audience, “It is both my responsibility and my right as a citizen to expose corruption, wrongdoing and injustices . . . My mission is to fight through cartoon.”